Pets: The business of dog-walking

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 13 August 2024

⏱️ 18 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We explore professional dog-walking around the world. We hear from walkers from the United States, Argentina and Europe about how they operate, the growing market, and the challenges of making a career from taking other people's pets on daily walks - sometimes several at a time.

And we join a dog walker in Paris, Caroline, to find out why the relationship between walker and dog is the most important when securing clients.

Expect plenty of barks.

(Image: Caroline, a professional dog-walker in Paris, with three dogs)

Presented and produced by Sean Allsop

Transcript

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0:00.0	Five years ago, I was walking my chocolate Labrador, Mabel, in a field, and came across someone
0:08.2	being pulled along by a German shepherd.
0:11.1	I offered to help, and when she saw me control her dog, she asked me if I would be interested
0:16.5	in walking her dog for money.
0:18.7	I needed a side job at the time, so I inadvertently became a professional dog walker.
0:24.6	I walked Charlie, the German Shepherd, for eight months, five times a week.
0:29.2	For me, it was only a side job, but for millions around the world,
0:33.2	it's a serious profession that's only growing.
0:37.0	My colleague were like, Caroline, I can see that you love dogs more than people,
0:42.2	so maybe you should do something about it.
0:44.9	It was a, you know, up-and-coming industry, but now it's like de rigour.
0:50.8	That you have a dog, you're also going to have a dog walker.
0:54.9	So yes, if you ask me if you can make a living from walking dogs, yes, you can.
1:02.0	I'm Sean Alsop.
1:03.5	And for Business Daily on the BBC World Service, I'm exploring the business of professional dog walking.
1:11.9	Hi, I'm beautiful. Nice to professional dog walking. Hi, a good drummer.
1:13.4	Nice to meet you.
1:14.8	Nice to meet you.
1:15.6	Nice to meet you.
1:16.4	I introduce you, Salazi, my friend.
1:18.4	Hello, Salazar.
1:19.6	Yeah.
	...

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